Berkeley Electric

They gave us great service on an older Berkeley Hills home. We had an issue with the breaker/​outlets and they troubleshooted the problem and explained thoroughly the issue. Called me when they were on their way to confirm appt. Fast, efficient, friendly, and cost efficient. I asked to help with a few other things — an outlet and a light. Their two hours cost 300 $ roughly. Would call again.

The electricity in our kitchen went out this morning. I was worried that my refrigerator items would spoil if I could not get a service call pretty quickly. I called Berkeley and the office manager (?) told me how to reset the electrical outlet and circuit breaker saving me a service call (and all the food in my fridge). She did that without making me feel like an idiot too. THAT is good customer service — she could have not said a word about how to fix the problem and booked the appointment. I scheduled a service call anyway to fix another problem and to upgrade an outlet. I’ll post again for part 2 of this experience.
Part Two: Service person came on time this morning and fixed the outlet, figured out the garage lights with minimal effort and changed a bulb for me. Still 5 star review. Thank you Berkeley Electric!

I live in a house built in the 1920, it has it’s challenges, but Berkeley electric put in a new breaker box and removed the use of fuses, so we are good to go. Work done on time and within estimate and clean-​up was good too. I have used them several times and will call them for any future projects.

I found this business on Unilocal.Called them up. Got an appointment the next day. Granted, it was the crack of dawn — 8 a.m. — but I needed the next day and they made that possible. Javier showed up on time, was very professional, and very efficient. I will call them again when I need electrical help.

The manager contacted us and agreed to settle the accounts for us.

We hired Berkeley Electric to do a substantial amount of electrical work in the home we purchased in North Berkeley. Our house was built in 1936 and had much of the original knob and tube wiring. I met with the owner, Zalman, who went over the most critical areas to be addressed as we had a set budget to work with. Zalman and his crew replaced our electrical breakers, re-​wired much of the house, and made several improvements to the overall electrical system to make it more efficient and far safer. During the work our contractors for the general construction short circuited the new electric boxes BE put in. Zalman worked with us to replace them at cost even though it was not the fault of his crew. Zalman is very knowledgeable and trustworthy and a person of his word. I would recommend him to anyone in the East Bay looking for an outstanding electrician.

Zalman installed our new service when we first moved into our house almost 5 years ago. He showed up on time, did the work quickly and for a great price. He was friendly, skilled, reliable and knowledgeable. He was also flexible with our schedule. 4+ years later we haven’t had one problem with the service, he did great work.

Excellent presentation at BNI. Along with heavy commercial and residential large electrical projects, they cosult on lighiting and all other electrical equipment, appliances. Safety and customer satisfaction is number one for them.

I recently called American Electrical for one of my clients. They were experiencing intermittent power outages and it was causing havoc with their computer systems, (which I service). Zalman did a thorough inspection of the office wiring and uncovered a very serious situation. The main power line into the building was rubbing on the masthead which caused the short, especially in the rain.
The American crew provided an estimate the next day, the client approved the work and it was fixed within a week. In addition, the crew recommended a dedicated circuit for the server and cleaned up some bad wiring left by the former electrician. Since the original work the client has called Zalman back out to add more circuits.
On time, on estimate, and very proactive. I plan to use them in all my clients when they need electrical work.

I contacted them based on Unilocal reviews. They showed up on time, trouble shot the problem and fixed it! Professional and friendly. After their visit, they sent ME a thank you note!

PROS: Zalman takes the time to explain things, give opinions, and talk you through large projects. He even invited us over to his house in the evening to look at some of his favorite light fixtures. He stopped by for free afterwards to help us trouble shoot some wiring (we had them rewire our entire new downstairs). I have complete confidence in his expertise and the quality of his work. The two-​man crew that actually did the work were both extremely efficient, knowledgeable, courteous and helpful in every way. I had them do the wiring just up to the boxes to save $$ and then had him charge time and materials instead of fixed bid.
CONS: The only reason I dinged him a star is the price. His standard price is $ 100 per fixture, including new circuits, wiring, boxes etc. — or $ 1,200 a day for two-​man crew. That’s a whole lot of money for a major renovation like ours. Mind you that he did not charge for his consultation time (a significant chunk — several hours worth). Also — he gave my wife a bit of a hard sell at the end, trying to get in an extra half day for work on some minor tasks.
Overall, I would recommend him to anyone who is not on a super tight budget.

When my new dryer was delivered, the guys who were supposed to install it told me I needed an updated plug and left. I called Zalman at American Electrical and he agreed to fit me into his weekend schedule. Not only did he install the new plug, he also installed the dryer — all within ½ hour. He was ingenious in making the dryer vent fit my 25 year old townhouse-​sized utility closet. Everything fits and works beautifully.

I needed a new 220v hookup for a dryer. I called American Electrical and got to talk with Zalman personally to make my appointment. He was very helpful in giving me a ballpark estimate and getting me ready to welcome the electrician (and save some bucks by doing my own shopping).
the job was beautifully and professionally done the next day (less than 12 hours later). I could even pay with my credit card.
The only thing that could have been better about the whole thing would have been if I could have swiped my card instead of writing it down (but seriously…).

I managed to blow the power to my backyard work studio on a Friday night. Kirk came out within two hours of my call on a Saturday morning, was friendly and helpful, and didn’t laugh at me for not knowing how to reset the breaker. The discount for mentioning Unilocal was nice, too! I would call them again if I needed any more electrical help.

Zalman is a true gentleman. He was polite and informative.
I have really enjoyed speaking with him.
He is upfront and honest will all information, so there are no surprises.

In a word, American Electrical is fantastic. I needed to replace some out dated wiring in my home and install recessed lighting in the living room. I called a couple of Alameda based electricians for quotes and was unsatisfied from the get go until I called American Electrical. Unlike the others American Electrical was cooperative, responsive and easy to work with. Zalman came to my house on a Saturday and did a very through inspection on my wiring to determine exactly what needed to be done in order to provide a quote. His quote that was more than 50% below any I received to date from other electricians in Alameda. Now that the job is done I couldn’t be more satisfied. It was a three day process, and his guys worked to keep the noise level low, cleaned up before they left, and made what could have been a major headache into a minimal interruption. They did a professional job at patching the necessary holes they had to punch in the walls too. After a a quick touch up paint job, it will look like nothing ever happened. These guys are the best and I am going to use them again. I highly recommend you check out American Electrical for any of your electrical needs.

I had a Service Panel upgrade done. I own a house built in 1946 with a Federal Republic panel that had been warned by home inspection to replace due to recall. Zalman explained not only why the panel was recalled, but how the panel would be replaced and the whole process.
The bid I got was not the lowest, but it was the most competitive. Prior to the electrical bids, I did check licenses of each company.
When I put this out to bid, I received a variety of responses and bids. I even got one bid from another company over the phone and it was the lowest bid. Zalman worked with both the City of Oakland and PG&E to minimize the impact of the panel upgrade because of the «dog house» that enclosed the panel.
His crew showed up as promised, worked continuously, cleaned up, and turned the power back on once the line was reconnected.
I highly recommend American Electrical.

What a fantastic experience! After many requests to numerous local electrical contractors, I was getting to think business was so good, no one needed to take on any more business! Wendy was extremely friendly and professional, and Zalman is as good as they get. Showed up on time (!!) and got everything squared away in a very short amount of time. And did I mention this was on a boat too? I can’t think of a better experience with a company. If you need ANY electrical work, these are the folks to turn to. Thanks again for the great work!

Called this company. The owner gave me some song and dance that the reason I would best go with American Electrical is that I would «feel safe giving him the keys to my house.» Fee starts at $ 150 — which it is implied, gets you an hour because that’s what he charges for an hour.
Well, this owner guy shows up for my problem (an awry 240v outlet) and I ask him if in the hour if he could also put up some lights I’ve purchased. He flatly says no and that he’ll only fix the original problem — that he needs to get to some business «mixer». Bad sign from the get-​go.
Well, he does indeed fix the 240v problem. Now its bill time. The guy screws around on his phone for a good 10min. Takes another 10min to fill out his darn form. THEN, he charges me for an extra 15min (@ $ 150/​hr) plus $ 20 for the part (which is $ 6 retail). The bill comes to $ 208.
Now, its not really the extra $$ — rather the fact this guy nickle-​and-​dimed me. Heck, he didn’t even bring his tools the first trip up to my condo. Great, he got me for an extra $ 60 — but he’ll never get another cent from me. The proper term for this behavior is «skimming» the market.

Complete bozos. We got the company’s «best» electrician. He, during the middle of a workday, disconnected a live branch circuit taking down a string of computers. Then, he did it again by shorting out some other wires. His comment «oh, no big deal, just a breaker». He was utterly clueless about network wiring. He was rough. He did the easy work first (rather than the important work). At one point he lost a pull string, and decided to cut another hole. Then, another hole, leaving three awkward to patch holes right in our wall. And he left an extra hole in the ceiling. The only good spot about these folks was: the owner was willing to look the other way about a specific electrical code violation.